The US could gradually lift restrictions on using the long-range missiles, a senior official in Kiev has told the Telegraph<\/p>\n
Ukraine could use US Tomahawk missiles to launch increasingly escalatory strikes on targets inside Russia in order to \u201cpressure\u201d Moscow to agree to a peace deal, an official in Kiev has claimed to The Telegraph.
\nWashington first signaled last month that it was considering supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. The weapons, which cost about $1.3 million each and have a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles), could reach targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had \u201csort of made a decision\u201d on the matter, but added that \u201cI\u2019m not looking to see escalation.\u201d
\nEgor Cherniev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament\u2019s national security, defense, and intelligence committee, suggested that the missiles could be deployed in phases, with one scenario being that they would not be fired at all, or only used against a narrow range of targets.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Putin issues warning on US Tomahawks for Ukraine<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst they will give us rockets, but a few pieces, or a couple of dozen, but they will not allow us to shoot them at once and we will see the Kremlin\u2019s reaction,\u201d he said, as quoted by The Telegraph.
\nIf Russia does not respond, he added, \u201cthe envelope increases, allowing strikes on the Russian border.\u201d Eventually, he suggested, in order to push Moscow towards talks, all restrictions might be lifted \u201cexcept perhaps strikes on the Kremlin and directly on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.\u201d
\n\u201cThis whole epic could take at least a few months. But it\u2019s already real pressure,\u201d Cherniev argued.
\nPutin warned last week that sending Tomahawks to Ukraine would \u201clead to the destruction of [Russia-US] relations, or at least the positive tendencies that have appeared in these relations.\u201d
\nThe Russian leader has also pointed out that Ukrainian forces would be unable to operate the system without \u201cdirect participation of American military personnel,\u201d adding that the deliveries would not alter \u201cthe balance of power on the battlefield.\u201d
\nPutin recalled previous shipments of long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, which he said at first \u201ccaused some damage, but in the end, Russia\u2019s air defense systems adapted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US could gradually lift restrictions on using the long-range missiles, a senior official in Kiev has told the Telegraph Ukraine could use US Tomahawk missiles to launch increasingly escalatory…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t